NCES CCD 2024-25 16 schools CO

Best-Resourced Schools in Golden, CO

Compiled from official source data by .

16 public K-12 schools in Golden from NCES Common Core of Data: enrollment, grade span, demographics, and Civil Rights Data Collection statistics for every active campus.

PlainSchools home → About this data
16
Schools
7,339
Students
46.8/100
Avg Resource Index
16.5:1
Avg Student-Teacher Ratio

National city placement

Middle-of-corpus city profile

According to NCES CCD 2024-25, Golden has more public-school enrollment than 71% of the 4,487 US cities in this directory. Golden sits in the broad middle of the national city distribution rather than at a single obvious extreme. Its scale, average Resource Investment Index, and staffing position need to be read together: a middle placement on one measure does not cancel a stronger or weaker result on another. The percentile panel makes those dimensions explicit, and the school table shows where the city aggregate breaks into materially different campus profiles.

Combined-grade campuses shape the local portfolio

9 of Golden's 16 listed schools use NCES's combined or “other” grade-level classification. Citywide averages therefore blend campuses serving unusually broad or nonstandard grade spans with conventional elementary, middle, and high schools. Grade configuration is a first-order comparison here, not a minor label.

The composite and staffing measures point in different directions

Golden's average Resource Investment Index sits at the 77th percentile, while its teacher-staffing measure sits at the 38th percentile. The 39-point percentile gap is a reminder that the index is not a class-size score: counselors, gifted-program reporting, and attendance also affect it. Compare those components directly when two schools have similar index totals; the same headline score can arise from a different mix of reported resources.

City enrollment
Top 29%
School count
Top 21%
Resource Index average
77th percentile
Teacher staffing
38th percentile

Golden High School accounts for 20.0% of all Golden public-school enrollment

That concentration means Golden-wide averages can mask substantial variation outside the largest entity. Grade level: High. The share measures enrollment concentration only; it does not establish how districts allocate programs, capital, or staff. Enrollment-weighted aggregates give this entity more weight than any smaller peer, while an unweighted entity average treats every record equally.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Golden school enrollment varies 67× across entities

Golden school enrollment ranges from 22 students (lowest) to 1,469 students (highest), a spread of 1,447 students. That ratio is an extreme outlier spread — among the widest gaps observed anywhere in this dataset. Per-school staffing and program breadth can differ sharply at opposite ends of that enrollment range, so the city average should not be treated as a typical campus.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

Golden student-teacher ratio is 16.5:1 — near the typical range (US average ~15.7) — citywide staffing is neither unusually lean nor unusually crowded by this measure

student-teacher ratio is the simplest comparative metric but it does not capture the full picture: the ratio counts FTE classroom teachers against total enrollment, push-in specialists, English-language aides, special-education co-teachers, and counselors are not included in most reporting Variation between sub-units within Golden is typically wider than the Golden-aggregate figure suggests.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data, Public School Universe

3 of Golden's 16 listed schools are charters

19% of the city's listed public-school campuses are reported as charter schools in NCES CCD. Charter status identifies a different governance arrangement; it does not establish admissions availability, academic quality, or the share of city students enrolled in those campuses. Open each school record to compare enrollment and staffing directly.

Source: NCES Common Core of Data

# School Score
1. Connections Learning Center on the Earle Johnson C 86
2. Jeffco Virtual Academy 60
3. Rocky Mountain Deaf School 60
4. Fairmount Elementary School 53
5. Maple Grove Elementary School 53
6. Kyffin Elementary School 52
7. Ralston Elementary School 51
8. Coal Creek Canyon K-8 Elementary School 48
9. Shelton Elementary School 44
10. Golden View Classical Academy 42
11. Bell Middle School 36
12. Welchester Elementary School 36
13. Mitchell Elementary School 34
14. Compass Montessori - Golden Charter School 33
15. Golden High School 31
16. Free Horizon Montessori 29

Most racially and ethnically mixed schools in Golden

Ranked by the Simpson student-body diversity index (0-100) from NCES race and ethnicity data, where higher means a more evenly mixed student body. It measures mix, not quality.

  1. 1 Connections Learning Center on the Earle Johnson C 62.8/100
  2. 2 Rocky Mountain Deaf School 60.3/100
  3. 3 Welchester Elementary School 59.7/100
  4. 4 Jeffco Virtual Academy 53.4/100
  5. 5 Shelton Elementary School 49.1/100

What do families ask about schools in Golden?

Which Golden school has the highest Resource Investment Index? ▼

Connections Learning Center on the Earle Johnson C has the highest Resource Investment Index among the Golden schools in this federal-data comparison at 86/100. The index summarizes reported staffing, counseling, gifted-program, and attendance inputs; it is not an academic rating.

How many schools are in Golden, CO? ▼

Golden has 16 public schools with a total enrollment of 7,339 students. 3 are charter schools. Average student-teacher ratio: 16.5:1.

Other Cities in Colorado

Denver
232 schools
Colorado Springs
185 schools
Aurora
105 schools
Lakewood
54 schools
Fort Collins
47 schools
Pueblo
47 schools

Side-by-side: Compare any two schools or districts in Colorado →

Data from NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) 2024-25 and Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) 2021-22. The Resource Investment Index uses reported student-teacher ratio, counselor access, gifted programs, and attendance; it is not an academic rating. Cities must include at least five schools to be listed. This public-data comparison is for informational purposes: verify current enrollment, attendance boundaries, and programs with the school district before acting. See the guide to understanding NCES data.